In many computing systems, low-level instruction code, or firmware, is used as an intermediary between the hardware components of the computing system and high-level software executing on the computing system, such as an operating system. The firmware provides a set of software routines that allow high-level software to interact with the hardware components of the computing system using standard calls. In some computer systems, this low-level instruction code is a Basic Input/Output System (“BIOS”). In other systems, the low-level instruction code is an Extensible Firmware Interface (“EFI”)-compatible firmware. EFI firmware may also be configured according to a specification released by the Unified EFI (“UEFI”) forum (the “UEFI Specification”). Such a firmware is referred to herein as a UEFI compliant or enabled firmware.
Many manufacturers define a special boot mode, called manufacturing mode to enable particular firmware features for use in a manufacturing setting. The manufacturing mode may allow the system to be booted using manufacturing setup defaults. Manufacturing setup defaults include special system configurations for manufacturing purposes, such as the definition of a special boot path. These system configurations enable certain special manufacturing-level BIOS/EFI firmware and system functionality needed by platform and system manufacturers. The functionality enabled by the special system configurations are vendor and project specific. In UEFI systems, the boot mode is examined in a firmware phase called pre-EFI initialization (PEI) in order to determine whether the boot mode is set to the manufacturing mode or to a different mode. Different PEI and driver execution environment (DXE) drivers take different execution paths and perform certain special operations depending on the current value of the boot mode.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.